A piezoelectric polymer, typically polyvinylidene flouride (PVDF), and relatively flexible ceramic materials are presently available as hydrophone materials. These materials are being developed for use in large passive hydrophone arrays consisting of hundreds or thousands of sensor elements. The need exists to provide electrical connections to the thin surface electrodes of the piezpoelectric material and to provide an orderly and reliable cabling system to bring the signal from each sensor element to central locations for electronic processing. Further, this cabling system should not introduce acoustic scattering in the frequency bands of interest.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a structure which provides electrical connections to the individual sensor elements which satisfies the preceding requirements.
It is further object of this invention to provide a wiring arrangement which is suitable for production of transducer arrays of these materials which is reliable and suitable for production at low cost.
It is a feature of this invention that the wiring of the hydrophone array is accomplished by adapting the general technology of multi-layer wiring boards which are widely used in the electronics industry.
Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.